


In Memoriam

by Tori_Scribbles



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Blue Sargent is Hardcore, Canonical Character Death, F/M, Families of Choice, Gangsey, M/M, Multi, Noah Czerny deserved better, POV Ronan Lynch, Post-Canon, Ronan Lynch & Blue Sargent Friendship, Ronan Lynch Has Feelings, Tattoos, The Barns, Unconventional Families
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-12
Updated: 2018-08-12
Packaged: 2019-06-26 08:54:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,112
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15659910
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tori_Scribbles/pseuds/Tori_Scribbles
Summary: in memoriam/ˌɪn mɪˈmɔːrɪam/noun1. an article written in memory of a dead person; an obituary."in memoriam notices in the paper"preposition1. in memory of (a dead person)."an openly revolutionary work in memoriam Che Guevara"Etymology1. from Latinin memoriam:into memory.





	In Memoriam

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so although I've had the headcanon of them all getting tattoo's for a while, this actual fic sort of came out of nowhere and I regret nothing.

“Did it hurt?”

Sitting on the front steps of The Barns Ronan raised a sharp eyebrow, but his eyes didn’t drift from Chainsaw and Opal chasing each other in circles in the fields. After all, it was only a matter of time before it ended in a mess that he’d have to clean up.

“Being born? Having to put up with Declan? That time I broke three of my fingers? Be a little bit more specific, Maggot.”

Next to him, Blue huffed.

“Your tattoo,” she clarified, “did getting your tattoo really hurt?”

Ronan faltered, glancing over at her in surprise. That was the last thing he expected her to ask about. She’d admired the artwork once but other than that she’d never really been interested in it. But now, she stared back at him, a surprisingly soft look of something between curiosity and nervousness on her face.

“Yes,” he said bluntly, “a needle went into my back thousands of times over days. Of course it fucking hurt.”

He looked back out, just in time to see Opal trip over her own hooves and tumble into the grass with a shriek of laughter.

“Why?” he asked after a minute when Blue said nothing.

“I want to get one,” she said, “not big like yours. Just something simple. For Noah.”

Ronan felt his heart stutter at the sound of their lost friend’s name. And lost was the only real way you could describe him. They didn’t know where he’d gone, or what had happened to him. Just one day he was there and the next he was… not. And all they had to go on was Gansey’s dying memory of his voice.

Ronan swallowed thickly, pushing the memory of that day away.

“What were you thinking?” he asked quietly.

“The word remembered, maybe in Latin, here.” She traced her finger along the outside of her left forearm.

Ronan wanted to say something snarky and probably rude but he couldn’t bring himself to. He remembered the burning anger inside of him as he wrote against the cold glass. He remembered the emptiness in the days after, the missing place where Noah ought to be.

“There’s a shop, not far from Monmouth. They’re good there,” he said.

“Who’s good where?”

Adam and Gansey came out of the house, passing drinks across to Ronan and Blue before taking seats next to them. Adam's arm brushed against Ronan’s as he sat down and Ronan found himself leaning into the touch unconsciously.

“At the tattoo shop where Ronan went,” Blue said.

“And why are we talking about tattoo shops?” Gansey asked.

“Because Maggot is getting some hardcore ink to go with her face scar,” Ronan said, his lips twitching as Blue half-heartedly punched at his arm. The cut on her face hadn’t healed quite the same after Adam ripped it open again and it was a touchy subject, but Ronan seemed to be the only person who got away with commenting on it.

“I’m going to get a tattoo for Noah,” she said, “he told me once that he wanted one, but he was too scared to go and get it.”

Ronan scoffed unkindly. “That figures,” he said, ignoring Gansey’s disapproving look.

“It’s a good idea, Jane,” he said, “Noah would like it.”

“I thought about it too,” Adam said after a moment and Ronan looked up at him in surprise. “Getting a tattoo or… _something more._ To remember him with.”

“Me too,” Gansey said.

And Ronan couldn’t deny it. He wasn’t planning on another tattoo, but he’d been planning on doing or dreaming something for him.

“Just because I’m going to doesn’t mean you can’t,” Blue said. Gansey practically beamed at the suggestion and even Adam’s lips twitched. But Ronan groaned as he realised what that meant.

“Fucking hell, Maggot,” he said, “you want us to get _matching tattoos?”_

Adam laughed, “Noah would like that even more,” he said, making all of them smile slightly as they imagined his reactions.

“You don’t have to,” Blue reminded him, her foot kicking at his boot slightly. “It was just a thought.”

“I like the idea,” Adam said, because of course he fucking did.

“Me too,” Gansey said again.

Ronan sighed heavily as they all looked to him. “Alright,” he said, not feeling as pressured as he made it seem. “But he better fucking appreciate it as he looks down on us or whatever.”

Blue smiled and dropped her head against his shoulder and Ronan allowed it for a moment. “He will.”

-oOo-

In the end, they each got slightly different tattoos but they all carried the same meaning.

Gansey’s had opted for a tattoo across his ribs. He’d closed his eyes the entire time it was getting done, his jaw clenched, not saying a word as he reminded himself to breathe through the buzzing of the gun and the sting of the needle. He’d gotten the sweeping triangle of the ley lines with the word 'remembered' over the top in his own handwriting. Saying that as long as they ley lines existed, then they’d always be connected.

Adam too had gotten the word across his chest, not wanting the visibility of it to effect any potnetial interviews he would have. He opted for bold, almost typewriter-like font running across one of his lower ribs. But on top of the last letter, he’d had a small raven sit there proudly, looking down at the word. Then, above that raven, he’d had another one turning in mid-air and above that one was a third, flying away from the lettering.

Across her forearm, as she said, Blue got the word remembered in bold text and capital letters. But underneath it, she got the word more in soft cursive, the tops of the letters looping through the word above. To anyone else, it looked like she’d just gotten 'Remembered More' inked into her skin, but to a select few they knew it was separate. A reminder that there is more, to live more, to _be more._

Ronan thought about his a lot. Short of getting the Murder Squash Song inked into him forever, nothing he shared with Noah could be symbolised. It was just feelings and memories. Nothing he could put on paper in a symbolic way like the others. And Ronan was fine with that. So he, unlike the others opted for no symbols or fancy artwork. Just the word on his forearm as he’d written it nearly a year ago.

For the first time in seven years, the mystery, the murder, the magic, none of it mattered. None of that was important anymore. Because Noah wasn’t with them.

But he was _remembered._

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know what you think either here or on [ tumblr?](https://opalpynchx.tumblr.com/)


End file.
